You said it. And the Sox are cooperating tonight. And in the larger scheme, where this is all worthwhile for the emotion and excitement and good guys and bad guys, the Yankees are cooperating too, taking it to the O's. It's going to come down to three days in autumn ...

I want the BoSox to be no less than four games ahead came the final three with the Bronx Bummers. It would be great to see them for three games knowinng they were dead and buried. Even greater satisfaction would be loss all three games to them and listen to them whine for a year about they were better!

Schilling was bearing down and working on his control - he looked great and I hope he can master getting the ball down before the end of the season.

In the spirit of the addage "the taller the tree, the sweeter the fruit", then every denizen of the Nation must admit that last year's eight-game, rise from the ALCS ashes run was the sweetest fruit of all, an achievement unsurpassed in the annals of the sport.

I, too, wish these guys would try not to turn these final two weeks into an extended Acapulco cliff-diving contest, where each "W" is somehow given greater value if it comes with a heightened degree of difficulty.

The romp last night was a good tonic for most all of what seems to have been ailing the team, and lost amid the torrent of HRs was the long-awaited breakthrough for Tek, a nice 4 for 5 night. His stoicism and determination throughout his September batting woes have served as clear examples of why he wears the "C", and let's hope he has really discovered his stroke and will tear it up over the last 11 games.

No cupcakes tonight, sports fans, as the Incredible Kazmir and his preposterous feats of portside prestidigitation take the stage. How in the name of Zambrano did the Mets ever part with this kid? Imagine him in a Red Sox uniform.

In a similar game last September, many of will recall that Kazmir was the casualty of an early beanball-retalation ejection in a pivotal game that gave the Sox breathing room in the Wild Card race. After struggling for the first several innings, the Sox then teed off on a series of tomato cans in Devil Rays' uniforms to win the pivot game.

Given that tempers have apparently cooled between these teams and that four-seamers with a side of ribs seem to have been removed from the Trop menu, I expect no such early exit tonight, and the Sox will have to earn their hacks to take the rubber game of the series and have their mojo working as they head off to Baltimore to face the Dreaded El Birdos.

On another topic: I was waiting to read the Globe account of the game before prostrating myself, but Redsock, I owe you an apology.

Johnny Damon,playing hurt though he undoubtedly is,played wretchedly in the field last night, as he has intermittently for about a week. No criticism from the Bostom sportsjackels at all, even for the rock of letting Carl Crawford take two bases on a fly out. Renteria is playing even worse in the field (I'm beginning to worry that he has some dread neurological disease), but he's just "Fatigued" according to the Globe. You're 100% correct: when Manny does any of the stuff that Damon and Renteria have been doing almost daily, he's "goofing off," "not concentrating", being "a flake," "being Manny." When he takes a day off because he's "Fatigued," he's "malingering." I was wrong, wrong, wrong to give you such crap for calling attention to this phenomenon, and I am truly sorry. It was good and alert analysis, and I was just too blind to see it.

yaztex, you truly have a way with words. I always look forward to your comments.

As for last night, I have to question whether or not Ortiz is even human. Throw him anything that's not outside the strike zone, and he bruises hands in the bleachers.

If anyone but him gets the MVP, there's something wrong. The Manny/Ortiz cancelling each other out bullshit shouldn't get in the way this year. The number of Ws on his bat alone this season has to be in the double digits. His RBI weren't the only ones last night, but his were the first, and the most important.

Like you, I also was pissed after two nights ago. To the point where I ripped into some Sox players, and was ready to kill all life-forms yankee. And like yours, my blog was quoted on that yankee blog, as the seemingly nice dude basically tried to show all the yankee fans (who can read) how negative we all were. And like you, I got up the next morning, ready to watch the Sox come right back, which they did.